BircPs-Eye View of Teutonic Grammar 279
active construction, when (as always in Swedish) the two are diffeient,
eg
jag bhr straff ad I am being punished jeg bfrver stiaffet
m bhr (bhva) straffade we are bemg punished v^ bhver straffede
Similarly we have
jag shall bhva straff ad I shall be punished jeg skal blwe straffet
jag har bhvit straff ad I have been punished jeg er blevet straff et
jag hade bhvit sttaffad I had been punished jeg var blevet stiaffet
The only flexions of the noun arc the genitive -s (see below) and the
plural ending, typically -2? in Danish, Norwegian, and many Swedish
nouns (-ar and -or in some Swedish) A few nouns form a plural
analogous to that of our ox-oxen. Two words of this class are common
to all three dialects —ear-ears ora-oron (Swed), 0re-0? en (Dan ,
Norweg ), and eye-eyes, oga-ogon (Swed ), 0je-0jne (Dan ), 0ye-0yne
(Norweg ) A large class like our sheep> with no plural flesion, includes
all monosyllabic nouns of neuter gender A few words (p 206) like our
mouse-mice^ man-men (Swed man-man^ Dan Mand-Maend, Norweg
Mann-Menn) form the plural by internal vowel-change alone As in
German, many monosyllables with the stem vowels o, a, have modified
plurals, e g book-books = bok-bocker (Swed), Bog-B0ger (Dan )
The so-called indefinite article (a or an} has two forms in official
Swedish and Danish Norwegian, like some Swedish dialects, now has
three. One, ett (Swedish) or et (Dan and Norweg) stands before nouns
classed as neuter The other, en, stands before nouns classed as non-
neuter (common gender) in Swedish and Danish, or masculine in
Norwegian, which has a feminine ei as well Thus we have en god
fader (a good father), and et(f) godt bain (a good child) The adjective
has three forms
(a) root + the suffix -a (Sw.) or -e (Dan and Norweg) when
associated with any plural noun or any singular noun preceded by a
demonstrative or possessive, e g
SWEDISH DANISH
good women goda kvinnor gode Kvinder
my young child mitt unga barn mit unge Barn
this good book denna goda bok denne gode Bog
(&) root alone^ when associated with a singular non-neute\ noun
which is not preceded by a demonstrative or possessive, e g
a good dog en god hund en god Hund